Martha Stewart: A CHANEL model

[before]

What in the world...

Consider our minds blown and apologies if we’re way late to the party, but we had absolutely no idea that Martha Stewart used to be a model. It took Racked’s coverage of Andre Leon Talley’s appearance on her show this morning to open our eyes.
From their conversation:
MS: How’s everything going?
ALT: Well, the most extraordinary thing was that Karl Lagerfeld was in town and he said to me that you were once a Chanel model, which I did not know. That’s fascinating!
MS: Way before Karl…
ALT: That doesn’t matter! And I tweeted—I said, ‘Did you know that Martha Stewart was once a Chanel model in the days of Coco?’ And people were fascinated.
MS: It was only one summer.
Naturally, we did some digging (read: google searching) and found these amazing images of a very svelte and very young Stewart. We’re in love.
Also, it turns out Tory Burch — she of the Great Backpack Comeback – was also shocked to discover Stewart’s sartorial roots. So shocked that she had Martha walk her through some of her old photos.

styleite.com

 

[NakedIfIWantTo]

Phew. I thought she was going to be one NOW.
But she was indeed beautiful back in the days.

 

[xerq]

wow, that's surprising.

 

[Urban Stylin]

No wonder she always poses like a pro on her magazines and being 6 footer its not suprizing!

 

[softgrey]

i'm surprised people didn't know this already...
...

she was a model...married a rich dude and became a caterer...and crafter...
then divorced the dude and started appearing on oprah regularly...
making x-mas wreaths, etc...
then she parlayed those appearances into her own show and magazine...

like dr phil and dr oz ...etc...
except that she did it without oprah's help...

 

[Scott]

yeah i thought people already knew she was a moderately successful model at one point? and it certainly wasn't woolworth's type stuff either.

 

[silk skin paws]

I was unaware. I can see why though. She looked great.

 

[Cicciolina]

You can tell even now that she would have been beautiful when she was younger, and even now she's quite attractive imho.

On Stylelist a commenter has disputed the dates though, saying that Martha claims they were taken in the 60s, but they think (due to the style, publication dates, etc) the photos were from the 70s. ie one of the photos Martha says it was for Ms Magazine in the early 1960s, but Ms Magazine wasn't established till the early 1970s.

Wasn't Martha also a stockbroker or trader after going to Barnard? She's definitely a smart cookie.

 

[moirla]

I had no idea! I always thought she was very beautiful however...

 

[Meg]

yeah she was very beautiful when she was younger. Same with Cybil Shepherd. They are both people who I think look quite different (not saying they are unattractive now!) from when they were younger and both were quite classic American beauties...

 

[Spiral1532]

Consider our minds blown and apologies if we’re way late to the party, but we had absolutely no idea that Martha Stewart used to be a model.

There's a famous picture of Linda Evangelista in a Barney's New York ad from 1991 (shot by Steven Meisel) in which she's holding her face up to a birdcage...and that shot is actually a replica of an old Martha Stewart modeling pic from the 60s.

And btw, Martha has mentioned many times on her tv show that she used to be a model when she was young. She even did a behind-the-scenes vignette for her show while she was in Paris for the 2006 F/W Chanel couture collection, in which she talked with Lagerfeld about the time that she runway modeled in Paris in the 60s.

 

[NakedIfIWantTo]

^well let's just say not everybody watches the Martha Stewart show, lol.

 

[Kamelot]

i'm surprised people didn't know this already...
...

she was a model...married a rich dude and became a caterer...and crafter...
then divorced the dude and started appearing on oprah regularly...
making x-mas wreaths, etc...
then she parlayed those appearances into her own show and magazine...

like dr phil and dr oz ...etc...
except that she did it without oprah's help...

yep, but the husband left her for a younger woman. As a matter of fact she was Martha's assistant, such a cliche.

She was a true beauty in her younger yrs, looks almost like Princess Grace.